Kindred first operator to report revenues derived from harmful gambling

Kindred Group has become the first gambling industry operator to publish its share of corporate revenues derived from harmful gambling.

From now on, the group will publish its new "transparency metric" as part of its safer gambling mandate, in which the company seeks to achieve zero percent of revenues from harmful gambling by 2023.

Kindred revealed Sunday that during the fourth quarter of 2020 trading the company recorded a 4.3% share of gross winnings from players deemed "high risk". The high-risk figure is shared with a further group-wide measurement of "safer gambling efficiencies", reporting a 75.7% improvement effect following customer interventions. Kindred stated that nearly 98% of the players on the company’s platforms gamble responsibly.

"By providing these figures, Kindred wants to increase knowledge and transparency about the company’s sustainability work and contribute to a fact-based dialogue about harmful gambling with decision-makers and other stakeholders," the company said in a press release.

Henrik Tjärnström, CEO Kindred Group said: "We constantly strive to become even better at identifying players that exhibit risky gambling behaviour and guide them back to healthier gambling habits. We want gambling to be simple and enjoyable for everyone. Reducing harmful gambling in society is a long-term process which requires a fact-based, open, and constructive dialogue, not least with decision-makers. We want to contribute to that. The most important thing decision-makers can do right now is to reduce the flight to unlicensed gambling operators, who fail to provide players with any safety measures whatsoever. The so called channelisation must increase.”

Several years ago, Kindred developed a safer gambling program to achieve the zero per cent ambition by 2023. Key elements include quicker and more accurate identification of potentially harmful gambling; improvement of support tools to encourage and lead players who exhibit risky behaviours back towards healthier gambling; automated communication with players to ensure rapid intervention when needed.

“In order to evaluate our own sustainability work and to counteract harmful gambling, we continuously measure how our efforts contribute to healthier gambling together with how much of our revenue that comes from harmful gambling. We want to share these figures to increase the understanding of our long-term sustainability work and contribute to a safer gambling experience. Local market regulation is an important part to achieve this,” Tjärnström added.

Kindred's figures on revenue from harmful gambling will be updated quarterly and published on its website together with a measurement of the effectiveness of the sustainability work.